A representação do negro nas poesias de Castro Alves e de Luiz Gama

Abstract

This work intends to analyze the representation of black people in the poetry of Castro Alves and to show that the african-Brazilian was represented by him in a limited way, viewed from the outside . This fact can help people to build a semantic contrary to the appreciation of the descendant of slaves, because it strengthens inferiorizing images. Nevertheless, the Bahian poet was a voice in favor of the black people in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is purpose of this study to open up new avenues for future readings of Castro Alves, for the poet, even being one of the most advanced consciousness of his time, turned out to represent the black people in a way not to totally break the stereotypes of his time, what makes us relativize the nickname \"poet of the slaves.\" It is noteworthy that the Brazilian poetry of the nineteenth century appeared as creator framework of issues, themes and nationalist and subjectivist situations at a time when the domain of political power was exercised by the ruling class which maintained slaves. Alves literary discourse was strongly marked by dominant interests that were part of the country\'s modernization process, such as the abolition of slavery by the hands of the elite itself and the consequent and gradual transformation of the slave in proletarian. This paper also aims to discuss how the texts of the black poet Luiz Gama, a contemporary of Castro Alves, from a speech from the inside , saying the african-Brazilian specificity, build an identity affirmation of himself and of his collective, surpassing the common semantic places where the black people had been closed in the Brazilian literary tradition. To show the trajectory of black people from object to subject, we take as parameters three elements: the creative poetic consciousness; the point of view of the enunciation and the values conveyed by poetic discourse, aspects relating to the representative statutes in literature.